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Golden_Nebulas
Aug '22

Picture this:
You’re going through your day, not being able to write more than 200 words for something you really REALLY want to write/draw. The day is over, and you can finally lay in bed and get some rest. But, oh no, your brain decides that now is the time to create a whole story scenario that would be AMAZING if you could get up and write all of it down. Now, you have to decide between getting up and staying up the entire night, or going to sleep with the chance that you might forget half of your amazing idea, but you get enough sleep to function tomorrow.
Am I the only one who does this, or does someone else relate to my constant struggle?

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    Aug '22

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    Oct '22
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DokiDokiTsuna
Aug '22

I hate to say it, but I usually go with Option A: stay up all night, if necessary. ^^; I'm a night person; I do a lot of my best creative work around 2AM, and getting a decent job on the night shift was one of the best things that ever happened to me, because now I can do that without repercussions. :thumbsup:

Although usually, when it comes to just * ideas * I can write down a quick reminder/prompt and come back to it later. Most of my story ideas are absolute garbage when I first come up with them, no matter how excited I am...it takes at least a day or two in the oven for them to mature into something good. And when I've finally worked out all the bugs and the narrative has taken shape in my head, THAT'S when I spend 10 hours at my keyboard writing it all down. ^^;

Golden_Nebulas
Aug '22

I do my best creative work 10 PM to 3 AM, but I have to sleep for at least 3 hours so I don't pass out in the middle of something important! XD
When I write down my ideas, I'll say "one more sentence", then "one more paragraph", theeen "one page". After that, it'll be 5 O'Clock in the morning, ten to 15 pages in, and I'm running off of an energy drink mixed with tea.

VibrantFoxRegular
Aug '22

this is me but ideas come even more sporadically so sometimes its in the middle of work, on the commute or at like 4am in the midst of some insomnia fuled fugue so if im able i jot it down in the notepad i carry everywhere or put it into a note on my phone otherwise its settling with maybe forgetting some details or hoping inspiration strikes again later on

Stargazer31
Aug '22

Sometimes I wake up at like 2am with what I think is a great idea, so I write it down, and go back to sleep.
When I check in the morning, it's something stupid like "JoJo au where an evil robot turns people into fridges."

BLTX
Aug '22

Guess I'm not the only one. Yes, like many of the others here, I do my best work at night, typically between 1 - 4 AM. I ALWAYS keep my laptop, and or phone next to me, and it tends to keep me all night. Usually, not getting to sleep until about 5, or even 6, when the sun has come up.

TheLemmaLlama
Aug '22

I don't have it as bad as most people here; if I'm pulling teeth trying to write/draw something then that something tends not to be "something you really REALLY want to write/draw" (at that moment). And my late night ideas tend to be short and probably takes me anywhere between 30 seconds to 3 hours to write down at the very most. (Maybe it's because I write in bed with no energy drinks and only the light from my laptop, so I get drowsy more readily?)

LackofCoffee
Aug '22

All the time!!

It's either when I'm going to bed, or when I'm driving, or while I'm at work. I have pulled over while driving in order to write the thought down. You have to take inspiration whenever it hits.

CommissarTarkin
Aug '22

Well, I wrote up the premise to a whole fictional universe at about 3 a.m. after being sick with COVID in December 2020, so I can't say it didn't happen to me.

RedLenai
Aug '22

Well, whenever I have that kind of ideas, I try to write them down in a notepad or the notes app in my phone, mostly to remember the key aspects and so, I'll remember the rest later. Then I go to sleep

Lady_T_Musings
Aug '22

The notes app on my phone is heaven sent so If I get lightning-struck inspo I just roll over and type it out with my thumbs and pick it up in the am or later on for a more detailed write-out :3.

powerplantanimations
Aug '22

I'd write it down on my phone. Like a small prompt. For example, I come up with an epic battle that's so descriptive.

I just make a bullet point list and write small details on doc.

And then I go to sleep.

sams_cartoon_shack
Aug '22

Ideas seem to come more naturally for me when I'm not actively focusing on thinking up a new idea in front of the laptop screen.

RobertBMarks
Aug '22

The ENTIRE plot for the third Re:Apotheosis book wrote itself this way.

Let's just say I do a lot of adding line items to story outlines very late at night...

TheLemmaLlama
Aug '22
LackofCoffee

I'm showing this comment to my mom the next time she asked me if I'm ever going to learn to drive :stuck_out_tongue:

Okay, but have you ever has a whole-ass scene flood into your head where the wording and everything is perfect and you're worried you're never going to find words that fit so well if you don't get it all down immediately? :'D

RedLenai
Aug '22
1
TheLemmaLlama

Well... my memory will be pretty fresh the next morning, so for me, writing down the key aspects in a notepad that I have besides my bed or in my phone to later remember is enough for me to remember the whole sequence.

Sometimes you can't have both the cake and the bread, so it'll depend on what you choose and the responsabilities of the next day. Still, I won't consider anything done within the last hours of the day + exhaustation "perfect" since I consider that the brain is tired enough to not properly see flaws or other aspects.

SomethingVerySilly
Aug '22

I feel like I could change the world if I had the same levels of inspiration during the day that I have at night.

Then again, the last note I put in my phone is:

"Motorcycles acting like dogs, excited to see each other etc."

So it's probably for the best that it's restricted to night times...

But yeah as others have said, you need a way to get your thoughts down there and then, even if it's in note form - my phone is perfect for that.

TheLemmaLlama
Aug '22
RedLenai

True; I guess the thing is my exhausted brain thinks it's perfection and refuses to go to sleep until I write it down because it fears losing what it just came up with :stuck_out_tongue: I admit when I look over it the day after, it's usually far from perfection XD

C.L.G
Aug '22

This happened to me a few times,but I had to sleep otherwise I'll get tired when driving to work. I'll just write notes or random words in a journal before I go to bed. My brain can pick up the pieces.

Lady_T_Musings
Sep '22
TheLemmaLlama

I actually haven't had that happen where the dialogue was perfect and the scene was if I'm being real. I'm hella visual so I will most likely see the scene and hear key phrases (often not even whole sentences) that my brain wants me to work around. Like odds are I'll be writing out specific scenes to draw later when something akin to this feeling happens over scripting dialogue.

If this feeling does happen to me or has and I don't remember, It's bc I was in bed like.... well if it's leaving this much of an impression, you can script it out in the morning Lady. So spin the wheel if I remembered or not, but if I took some notes at least I should be able to retrace my steps.

Rai_Muffin
Sep '22

Depends when I'm in work the next morning, or if I can afford to stay up if it means lying in.
You can't control that motivation, so sometimes you gotta grab hold of it when it strikes.

TheLemmaLlama
Sep '22
Lady_T_Musings

Oh, this is similar to what I meant actually! Sometimes key phrases come into my head that I feel 'yes, this perfectly conveys what this character is trying to say at the moment', so I write it down, but I also have to make notes about the surrounding context (which aren't perfectly phrased, but felt necessary to me because sometimes the timing/beats of the scene is what makes those 'key phrases' sound perfect to by brain). And while it's not a full script from beginning to end, it adds up and before I know it I've been writing for 2 hours :stuck_out_tongue:

I also used to think 'if it's really that good surely it'll stick with me long enough for me to write it down tomorrow', but I've woken up with the feeling that 'I came up with something good last night but now I can't remember it for the life of me' too many times now to trust that thought :'D Even if I jot down the important bits/'key phrases', it'll just be a bunch of out-of-context phrases the next day with most of the magic gone XD

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closed Oct 2, '22

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